ce here is, the unity of the derived life.
Many are one, because they are each in Christ, and the individual
relationship and derivation of life from Him makes them one whilst
continuing to be many. That great metaphor, and nowadays much
forgotten and neglected truth, is to Paul's mind the fact which ought
to mould the whole life and conduct of individual Christians and to
be manifested therein. There are three most significant and
instructive symbols by which the unity of believers in Christ Jesus
is set forth in the New Testament. Our Lord Himself gives us the one
of the vine and its branches, and that symbol suggests the silent,
effortless process by which the life-giving sap rises and finds its
way from the deep root to the furthest tendril and the far-extended
growth. The same symbol loses indeed in one respect its value if we
transfer it to growths more congenial to our northern climate, and
instead of the vine with its rich clusters, think of some great elm,
deeply rooted, and with its firm bole and massive branches, through
all of which the mystery of a common life penetrates and makes every
leaf in the cloud of foliage through which we look up participant of
itself. But, profound and beautiful as our Lord's metaphor is, the
vegetative uniformity of parts and the absence of individual
characteristics make it, if taken alone, insufficient. In the tree
one leaf is like another; it 'grows green and broad and takes no
care.' Hence, to express the whole truth of the union between Christ
and us we must bring in other figures. Thus we find the Apostle
adducing the marriage tie, the highest earthly example of union,
founded on choice and affection. But even that sacred bond leaves a
gap between those who are knit together by it; and so we have the
conception of our text, the unity of the body as representing for us
the unity of believers with Jesus. This is a unity of life. He is not
only head as chief and sovereign, but He is soul or life, which has
its seat, not in this or that organ as old physics teach, but
pervades the whole and 'filleth all in all.' The mystery which
concerns the union of soul and body, and enshrouds the nature of
physical life, is part of the felicity of this symbol in its
Christian application. That commonest of all things, the mysterious
force which makes matter live and glow under spiritual emotion, and
changes the vibrations of a nerve, or the undulations of the grey
brain, into hope and love